Globalization and Philippine Labor Migration Phenomenon

Globalization and labor migration from the Philippines accelerated almost  at the same  time. Three  revolutions contributed to Filipino labor migration phenomenon :communication technology , economic integration and widening demographic divide between developed and  developing regions.   As of December  2010, more  than  9 million  Filipino workers  are   found  working  in  more than 140  countries with Hong kong, Qatar and Singapore   as the three major  destinations  of  “global Filipino”.     Using  data in 2000, 2005 and 2010 from the  Philippine Overseas Employment Administration(POEA) .  it was  found that the host  region of    Filipino  workers are Middle East and  Asia.  The  nature  of occupations of  the Filipino labor migrants has  changed  from  production related work in 2000 to  service  work in 2010.  Due to this  change in the nature of  occupation, females  more than males  predominate  the Filipino labor migrants in  the last decade. This  study  supports the World system theory  where  peripheral countries  like the Philippines  supplies the labor  demands  of the  core  regions.  The annual remittances  of Filipino labor migrants  has kept the   Philippine economy afloat  and are now  regarded as  “heroes” .   Due to the failure  of the e Philippine  government  to  provide job opportunities  for  its   growing  labor force population and in spite of the  social cost   to the  families  left behind, the Filipinos will   search  for jobs   outside of the country. Thus, labor  migration from the Philippines is   a global  phenomenon  for  as long as there are market   demands for Filipino  labor.